Related papers: Symmetries and the fundamental forces of Nature
Lecture script of a one-semester course that aims to develop an understanding and appreciation of fundemental concepts in modern physics for students who are comfortable with calculus. This document contains the last part of the course…
Lecture notes written for a one-semester course in mathematical relativity aimed at mathematics and physics students. Not meant as an introduction to general relativity, but rather as a complementary, more advanced text.
Modern physics is largely defined by fundamental symmetry principles and Noether's Theorem. Yet these are not taught, or rarely mentioned, to beginning students, thus missing an opportunity to reveal that the subject of physics is as lively…
These five lectures collect elementary facts about 4D supersymmetric theories with emphasis on N=1 supersymmetry, as well as the basic notions of supersymmetric quantum mechanics. Contents: I. From symmetries to supersymmetry; II. Basic…
Symmetries are playing a very prominent role in natural sciences. In mathematics as the language of physics, symmetries are treated within the framework of group theory, which provides the tools to classify natural laws and physical objects…
Physical quantities and physical dimensions are among the first concepts encountered by students in their undergraduate career. In this pedagogical review, I will start from these concepts and, using the powerful tool of dimensional…
This is the introductive paper to the volume "Symmetries in Physics: Philosophical Reflections", Cambridge University Press, 2003. We begin with a brief description of the historical roots and emergence of the concept of symmetry that is at…
We discuss the nature and a general formulation of the relativity principle and we show that it can be justified starting from a strictly operational point of view. We give some remark on the connection with the spacetime symmetry groups.…
An introduction to loop quantum gravity is given, focussing on the fundamental aspects of the theory, different approaches to the dynamics, as well as possible future directions. It is structured in five lectures, including exercises, and…
These notes represent approximately one semester's worth of lectures on introductory general relativity for beginning graduate students in physics. Topics include manifolds, Riemannian geometry, Einstein's equations, and three applications:…
This document is an introduction to and review of two-dimensional mathematical physics. The reader is introduced to the subject matter primarily through problems, which are presented along with detailed worked solutions. For each chapter,…
A core level of basic information for physics is identified, based on an analysis of the characteristics of the parameters space, time, mass and charge. At this level, it is found that certain symmetries operate, which can be used to…
In contemporary theoretical physics, the powerful notion of symmetry stands for a web of intricate meanings among which I identify four clusters associated with the notion of transformation, comprehension, invariance and projection. While…
This is the first of a series of papers that we intend to publish about the epistemology of fundamental physics in its current state. One of the main objectives of these papers is to improve our understanding of fundamental physics (and…
These lectures notes contain an introduction to General Relativity. They are addressed to a general mathematical audience with no specific background in physics. The goal is to motivate and explain Einstein's theory of gravity and discuss…
These are notes from a 15 week course aimed at graduate mathematicians. They provide an essentially self-contained introduction to some of the ideas and terminology of QFT.
Special Relativity is taught to physics sophomores at Johns Hopkins University in a series of eight lectures. Lecture 1 covers the principle of relativity and the derivation of the Lorentz transform. Lecture 2 covers length contraction and…
This lecture note covers Relativistic Kinematics, which is very useful for the beginners in the field of high-energy physics. A very practical approach has been taken, which answers "why and how" of the kinematics useful for students…
This set of lectures covers the very basics of flavor physics and are aimed to be an entry point to the subject. A lot of problems are provided in the hope of making the manuscript a self study guide.
The concept of symmetries in physics is briefly reviewed. In the first part of these lecture notes, some of the basic mathematical tools needed for the understanding of symmetries in nature are presented, namely group theory, Lie groups and…